Le Tigre Working With Christina Aguilera

No, they haven't broken up.

It's been nearly five years since Le Tigre released their last album, the thoroughly meh This Island. And since they finished touring on that record, there's been precious little news from the New York electro-punk trio. Kathleen Hanna spent some time teaching. JD Samson has been DJing and playing live with a new band called MEN, which also includes Le Tigre bandmate Johanna Fateman. Though they insisted they were on an "extended break," we pretty much assumed that Le Tigre had broken up.

So it's a happy surprise to learn that not only do Le Tigre still exist, but they're in the studio working with one of the biggest pop stars on Planet Earth.

Here's what we know: According to Perez Hilton and confirmed by their publicist, Le Tigre are working with Christina Aguilera. Yes, all three of them, together. Beyond that, we know nothing about this bizarrely awesome combination. It's anyone's guess how Le Tigre's proudly low-budget racket will mesh with Aguilera's gazillion-dollar bazooka of a voice.

But as we reported last year, Aguilera has also recently spent time in the studio with Goldfrapp, Ladytron, and Sia. Judging by all this, the next Xtina album could be the sort of party-starting feminist move that [the great "Can't Hold Us Down" video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0bjiyvWqb4 "the great "Can&squot;t Hold Us Down" video" ) hinted at.

As for Le Tigre, it turns out they've been tentatively reminding the world of their existence for the past couple of months. In a March 19 MySpace blog post, the band apologized for their lack of updates and had this to say: "NOW WE ARE DEDICATED TO REBUILDING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR FANS THAT WE LOVE WITH ALL OF OUR HEARTS."

On April 1, Hanna made it absolutely clear that Le Tigre did not break up in a blog post titled "LE TIGRE DID NOT BREAK UP". She writes that the three members plus "our friend Carmine" are working on "a dvd about Le Tigre." She says, "We're hoping to have it out by next year. Will we ever write another album? I don't know. Will we ever play a show again? I don't know. But I still feel like Jo and JD are my bandmates, so to me, that means we are still a band even if all we are doing at the moment is making a dvd. I know it sounds cheesy to say 'we're on hiatus' maybe 'sabbatical' would be a better word. Either way, I am loving my time off and think it is a great thing to change things up now and again."

In the meantime, Johanna Fateman had a baby, and MEN head out on tour this summer, starting with a show this Friday, June 12, at the New Museum in Manhattan.